80% of ballots for 2025 polls printed – Comelec
File photo taken on Sept. 24, 2024 shows technicians inspecting a printing machine for ballots and other forms for the 2025 midterm elections at the National Printing Office in Quezon City (PNA /Joan Bondoc)
MANILA, Philippines — Eighty percent of ballots for the 2025 midterm elections have already been printed, Commission on Elections (Comelec) Chairman George Erwin Garcia said on Wednesday.
Garcia said that around 58 to 59 million ballots are already printed.
“Ang balota po ngayon, 80% nang nakakapag-imprenta. Tumigil lang po nang ilang oras kanina sapagkat nagpalit, naubusan lang ng papel pero biglang dumating ang order ng papel at nagdire-diretso ulit after several hours,” Garcia told reporters.
(Eighty percent of the ballots are already printed. We stopped for a few hours earlier because we changed and ran out of paper but the orders came and we resumed [printing] after several hours.)
He also said that around 25 million ballots were already verified. He said that a large volume of ballots are being verified at the Amoranto Stadium in Quezon City.
“Nakakahabol na yung verification of ballots natin sapagkat malaking tulong yung Amoranto operations. Malaking bilang ng balota ang naveverify dyan,” Garcia added.
(We are catching up on verification of ballots because operations in Amoranto [Stadium] are a big help. We are able to verify a huge number of ballots there.)
During the verification process at the National Printing Office and Amoranto Stadium, ballots are manually fed into the automated counting machines to check for printing irregularities such as ink smudges or torn pages.
The machines will then verify the secret markings and time markings of the ballots.
Garcia said that the Comelec is on track for the deadline of printing and verification of ballots. He said that the poll body targets to complete the printing of ballots by March 15 or 16 while the target verification of all ballots is April 20.
Meanwhile, Garcia noted that the voter information sheets (VIS) for Region 12 and Region 13 have already been delivered.
